As You’re Reading This, I’m Driving Across The Country!

So I get this call the other day from my business partner in crime, Nate St. Pierre, and he asks me if I wanted to drive across the country with him. He just landed this KILLER job out in Santa Monica, and turns out he’s packing up his stuff as we’re talking on the phone planning out our next Love Drop (which is tomorrow btw – in Wichita, KS)

My first instinct was, “What the hell? No, I can’t do that – I have work to do son!” But as he quickly pointed out, it was a “once in a lifetime experience” and I can do my work anywhere – especially on the road. Kinda true since we’d have like 40+ hours to kill;) And these days you can power your little work station right there out of your car’s lighter anyways, with internet and everything. It’s awesome.

But the thing that struck me here (ME! King of adventure and travel!!) was how quick I was to shoot it down before even thinking about it. It’s like we get so set in our ways, and have everything planned out with our work and our lives, and relationships/etc, that it’s easy to just overlook the potential for something BETTER right there in front of us. Like we can’t even see ‘opportunity’ when it’s staring us right in the eyes because we’ve got a slew of excuses going on before we even consider it.

Now, obviously we can’t all just stop what we’re doing and go drive across the country all willy nilly like that, BUT the point is that we should always be doing our BEST to keep our eyes open, and ready, to *ACCEPT* opportunities when they DO happen to cross our paths! Kinda like that story on those stranded people who keep refusing help when presented with it, because “God will come save them,” even though THAT’S what He’s doing by sending those people by their path this whole time! To hurry up and grab them before the flood swallows them whole! (I may have butchered that, but you get the point. It’s not always so black and white with things labeled as the “perfect opportunity” – you gotta just keep watching for it and be prepared for when it hits ya upside your head!)

There’s never a “right time” to do anything in this life, but there are PLENTY of “almost good times” to certainly be cognizant of. And sometimes we have to take that leap of faith that it’s helping us get from point A to B – whatever that happens to mean to you at that time. Or in my case, literally means from Point A to Point B! Haha… Wisconsin to California, baby!

So as you’re milling about this weekend, having fun w/ the kids or your friends/family/etc, just chillin’ and trying to keep cool (no pun intended), try to get in the habit of keeping those minds of yours open, and releasing those automatic shut-off valves that tend to get stuck in our way. Nothing’s ever gonna pan out exactly like how you have it in your head, and that’s perfectly okay! That’s what makes life beautiful :) And scary/frustrating/exciting at the very same time.

The way you’re currently doing things may work just fine, but keep in mind there may be OTHER, better, ways to accomplish those dreams of yours even faster. Whether it’s saving more money, getting a promotion, knocking away debt, buying a house – whatever. There’s never ONE way of doing things, so if something comes along and grabs your attention, even just for a second, STOP and think about it for a bit before suddenly shooing it away. Sometimes the best ideas are hidden right there under our nose :)

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PS: While I’m gone, we *may* do some live-blogging action from the ride, but I’m not sure yet. It all depends on how motivated and sleep-achieved we are (like my made-up word?). If we don’t, I’ll plop up some killer guest posts I’ve been saving up instead – which, honestly – are MUCH more interesting than a couple of dummies on the road causing trouble ;) I know I say it all the time, but THESE writers might be my all-time favorites I’ve had on the site over the years! Every one of them I wanted to post up ASAP ‘cuz they’re that GOOD. To the point of even making me jealous, haha…

So you may get them, or you may get me. But either way, it’ll be back to your regular scheduled programming come next weekend. You know I could never give y’all up for too long.

PPS: Live in between Kansas and California, and wanna meet up? Shoot me an email and we’ll see what we can muster: j (at) budgets are sexy (dot) com. I can’t promise anything, but we DO like to stop and take a lot of pictures/meet up with random strangers, so give us a shout and we’ll see where we are when we read it :)

Have a good time, J$, and enjoy. I have not mentioned this one yet but in three years time I intent to do pretty much the same ride but on a motobike with my son (who then will be 13) behind me. Hubby says that he will be driving obsenely large vehicle behind us. Can’t wait.

I’m not between Kansas and CA, but come to Cleveland on 9/10/11 and come to my wedding! You and Mrs. Budgets are Sexy would have a blast with my peeps. Great food and drinks, right downtown overlooking the water. I’m being totally serious! Take a road trip, and then I can help you write a post on financing a wedding!

Thank you for this post. Very timely. Reminds me of this quote from Tim Ferriss:

“For all of the most important things, the timing always sucks. Waiting for a good time to quit your job? The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. “Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually,” just do it and correct course along the way.”

Road trips are awesome, if you’ve got a comfy ride. Farthest I’ve gone was from Chicago to Portland (OR) and it was pretty fun; I liked Portland to Vegas much better though. Hope u and Nate have a blast. :-)

More power to you. I’ve had a few shorter road trips. From Jersey up to Boston or down to DC mostly. And two years ago, I drove from Jersey to my new home in Colorado. My problem is that long drives get real old for me, pretty quick. I have bad knees from a car accident when I was 18, so sitting for any length of time is painful.

I am all about taking advantage of socializing opportunities when they come up. :-) My only question is how does your wife feel about you out of town so much? Not everyone is as clingy as me, I get that. Just wondering. :-)

I’m in the habit of saying “yes” to random opportunity more often than most, especially when it comes to travel – so I love the direction of this post. Once, I used the word VOLAR as my acronym for my Voice of Logic and Reason. VOLAR is the side of your brain that reminds you that it’s not the right time, you haven’t budgeted for it, blah blah blah (excuses, even if some are legit). Then a good friend reminded me that in Spanish, VOLAR means to fly. That’s all the excuse I needed.

J. Money, I know you are probably enjoying the scenery, taking in the experience, and just living in the moment on this road trip. But if you do happen to get bored (say you’re driving through somewhere really dull or its raining or something), we did a post recently on things to do when you’re bored at Mango Money. A lot of them you can do right from the car, some online, some not so much. Check it out: http://www.mangomoney.com/blog/cheap-fun/bored-bored-bored Have fun!!!!!

I’m back guys!!! SO. MUCH. FUN. Hope you all behaved yourselves while I was away ;) Though now I’m tempted to MOVE there for real! I freakin’ LOVE L.A. man, dang… might need to start working out ways to get out there.

@Maria Nedeva – Wowwww, that is way cool! I want to go! :)
@tom – Haha, true that. Though we did consider it as we had other friends out there… only lasted .3 seconds though ;)
@Kat Skull – It was fun exploring that place! Had never gone my entire life until January of this year, and since then visited Milwaukee at LEAST 5 times. Haha… pretty crazy.
@Mysti – Oh yeah, that whole coast got battered up :( Right after I left it too! Hope you didn’t get too much nonsense out there.
@Nicole – COOOL!!! I WANT TO GO!!!! I’ll actually be in San Antonio around then though :( Man… that would be a first, huh? :) You know I’d totally come and celebrate w/ y’all though! Thanks so much for the invite :) Soak it all in!!! It’s an incredible experience :)
@Kathryn C – Oh wait, someone came to see you!!! Haha… was fun :) Thanks so much for sneaking outta work for a few!
@retirebyforty – Thanks! It was a blast.
@Ashley @ Money Talks – I’m so sad it didn’t work out :( At least we got the Blogger Conference coming up! No way we’re missing that ;)
@Michelle – TRUTH!!!!!
@Kody @ Financial Money Tips – Thanks, my friend! Turns out we ended up going a different route because *someone* didn’t calculate properly ;) Hitting Denver woulda cost us a good 13 hours! Oops.
@Jen @ Master the Art of Saving – Yeah, Portland to Vegas WOULD be cool! We def. had a good time last week – thanks :)
@Melissa – Yes! Do it!! You will not regret it :)
@ShoeGal – Haha, that is awesome. Killer motivation to get it too! :)
@20 and Engaged – Yeah! It was a blast meeting you the other night :)
@Edward Antrobus – Ouch, yeah I can imagine that. I wouldn’t be good in long trips by myself, but with friends/family it’s always easier.
@StackingCash – Hah! I’ll find you one day ;)
@Crystal – Awww, well yeah she’s actually a LOT more patient and accepting than I woulda thunk :) But since travel is now part of my job (w/ Love Drop and networking, etc), she’s really understanding and just wants the best. And since I work from home now, we get to see each other a lot as she’s a Grad student :) And Yup! We have a card we plug into this contraption (along w/ our laptops/chargers/etc) which then plugs into the lighter socket. So we literally have our own work stations in the car – it’s awesome. Except when you get no coverage in the middle of the desert ;)
@Jenni (Traveler for Good) – Oh cool! I like that :) VOLAR – I’m gonna use it!
@Mike – Oh yeah, best time I’ve had in a while for sure :)
@Evan – It could be worse though – my biz partner could be a hot girl, haha… then it would be a different story ;)
@Natalie @ Mango – Haha nice. Will check it out the next time I’m bored ;)
@Stella – It was fun!!! And now I want to move back! :)

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I, J. Money, only claim the thoughts from my head. I am not a banker, CPA, money manager or anything else of that sort. Please seek a professional for any "real" advice. More info: privacy & disclosure page